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The Dark Side of C++
Felix von Leitner
CCC Berlin
felix-cpp@fefe.de
August 2007
Abstract
Most of the perceived beneﬁts of C++,when viewed from a different
vantage point,turn out to have or even be downsides.
The Dark Side of C++
The Dark Side of C++
Central Complaints
1.newbug classes
2.hard to write
3.hard to read
The Dark Side of C++ 1
The Dark Side of C++
Warm-Up
readply.cpp:109:conversion from ‘_List_iterator<list<basic_string<c
har,string_char_traits<char>,__default_alloc_template<true,0> >,allo
cator<basic_string<char,string_char_traits<char>,__default_alloc_tem
plate<true,0> > > >,const list<basic_string<char,string_char_traits<
char>,__default_alloc_template<true,0> >,allocator<basic_string<char
,string_char_traits<char>,__default_alloc_template<true,0> > > > &,c
onst list<basic_string<char,string_char_traits<char>,__default_alloc
_template<true,0> >,allocator<basic_string<char,string_char_traits<c
har>,__default_alloc_template<true,0> > > > *>’ to non-scalar type ‘
list<basic_string<char,string_char_traits<char>,__default_alloc_temp
late<true,0> >,allocator<basic_string<char,string_char_traits<char>,
__default_alloc_template<true,0> > > >’ requested
The Dark Side of C++ 2
The Dark Side of C++
Actually...
#include <list>
#include <string>
#include <algorithm>
using namespace std;
void foo(list<string>& x) {
sort(x.begin(),x.end());//wrong iterator type
}
The Dark Side of C++ 3
The Dark Side of C++
Actually...
/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.1/../../../../include/c++/4.2.1/bits/stl_algo.h:In func\
tion ’void std::sort(_RandomAccessIterator,_RandomAccessIterator) [with _RandomAccessIterator = std\
::_List_iterator<std::basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char> > >]’:
big-error.C:8:instantiated from here
/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.1/../../../../include/c++/4.2.1/bits/stl_algo.h:2829:er\
ror:no match for ’operator-’ in ’__last - __first’
/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.1/../../../../include/c++/4.2.1/bits/stl_algo.h:In func\
tion ’void std::__final_insertion_sort(_RandomAccessIterator,_RandomAccessIterator) [with _RandomAc\
cessIterator = std::_List_iterator<std::basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<ch\
ar> > >]’:
/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.1/../../../../include/c++/4.2.1/bits/stl_algo.h:2831:\
instantiated from ’void std::sort(_RandomAccessIterator,_RandomAccessIterator) [with _RandomAccessI\
terator = std::_List_iterator<std::basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char> > >]’
big-error.C:8:instantiated from here
/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.1/../../../../include/c++/4.2.1/bits/stl_algo.h:2436:er\
ror:no match for ’operator-’ in ’__last - __first’
/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.1/../../../../include/c++/4.2.1/bits/stl_algo.h:2438:er\
ror:no match for ’operator+’ in ’__first + 16’
/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.1/../../../../include/c++/4.2.1/bits/stl_algo.h:2439:er\
ror:no match for ’operator+’ in ’__first + 16’
/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.1/../../../../include/c++/4.2.1/bits/stl_algo.h:In func\
The Dark Side of C++ 4
The Dark Side of C++
tion ’void std::__insertion_sort(_RandomAccessIterator,_RandomAccessIterator) [with _RandomAccessIt\
erator = std::_List_iterator<std::basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char> > >]’:
/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.1/../../../../include/c++/4.2.1/bits/stl_algo.h:2442:\
instantiated from ’void std::__final_insertion_sort(_RandomAccessIterator,_RandomAccessIterator) [w\
ith _RandomAccessIterator = std::_List_iterator<std::basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std:\
:allocator<char> > >]’
/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.1/../../../../include/c++/4.2.1/bits/stl_algo.h:2831:\
instantiated from ’void std::sort(_RandomAccessIterator,_RandomAccessIterator) [with _RandomAccessI\
terator = std::_List_iterator<std::basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char> > >]’
big-error.C:8:instantiated from here
/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.1/../../../../include/c++/4.2.1/bits/stl_algo.h:2352:er\
ror:no match for ’operator+’ in ’__first + 1’
/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.1/../../../../include/c++/4.2.1/bits/stl_algo.h:2442:\
instantiated from ’void std::__final_insertion_sort(_RandomAccessIterator,_RandomAccessIterator) [w\
ith _RandomAccessIterator = std::_List_iterator<std::basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std:\
:allocator<char> > >]’
/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.1/../../../../include/c++/4.2.1/bits/stl_algo.h:2831:\
instantiated from ’void std::sort(_RandomAccessIterator,_RandomAccessIterator) [with _RandomAccessI\
terator = std::_List_iterator<std::basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char> > >]’
big-error.C:8:instantiated from here
/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.1/../../../../include/c++/4.2.1/bits/stl_algo.h:2358:er\
ror:no match for ’operator+’ in ’__i + 1’
The Dark Side of C++ 5
The Dark Side of C++
Why I Learned C++
• OOP with Inline Member Functions
• (Operator) Overloading
• Templates
(STL didn’t exist yet)
The Dark Side of C++ 6
The Dark Side of C++
Ever-Changing Standard
• Wrote commercial C++ app in 1997
• Then C++ changed (life time of i in ”for (int i=0;...)”)
• Then C++ changed again (use iostreaminstead of iostream.h)
• Then C++ changed AGAIN (namespaces)
Useless maintenance work.Would have been less trouble in C.
The Dark Side of C++ 7
The Dark Side of C++
Ever-Changing Styles
Old and busted:
for (int i = 0;i < n;i++)
Newhotness:
for (int i(0);i!= n;++i)
The Dark Side of C++ 8
The Dark Side of C++
Optimizing in the Wrong Direction
• C++ makes using good libraries very nice
• C++ makes writing good libraries almost impossible
• Reading libraries is even harder
The Dark Side of C++ 9
The Dark Side of C++
Reading vs Writing
• Code must be easy to follow,not easy to write
• Code is written only once,but read many more times
• More context needed means harder to read
The Dark Side of C++ 10
The Dark Side of C++
C++ is hard to parse
Not just for humans,too:
template<class T> struct Loop { Loop<T*> operator->();};
Loop<int> i,j = i->hooray;
This sends the compiler into an endless loop until swap exhaustion.
The Dark Side of C++ 11
The Dark Side of C++
C++ is hard to parse
struct a{typedef int foo;};struct a1:a{};struct a2:a{};
#define X(b,a) struct a##1:b##1,b##2{};struct a##2:b##1,b##2{};
X(a,b)X(b,c)X(c,d)X(d,e)X(e,f)X(f,g)X(g,h)X(h,i)X(i,j)X(j,k)X(k,l)
X(l,m)X(m,n) n1::foo main(){}
In each iteration,the compiler must check whether the types of foo on
both sides of the multiple inheritance match.
g++ used to eat a gig of RAMand a couple CPU hours.icc still does.
The Dark Side of C++ 12
The Dark Side of C++
C++ is hard to parse
• string a("blah");instantiates a string and assigns ”blah”,but
string a();declares a local function returning a string.
• a && b evaluates a,and if it’s true,it also evaluates b.
Unless someone declared operator&&,then both are evaluated.
• (foo) + a*b;becomes +(foo,*(a,b)).
Unless foo is a type,then it’s *(typecast(a,foo),b).
• a,b means a is evaluated before b.
Unless someone declared operator,,then it’s not guaranteed.
The Dark Side of C++ 13
The Dark Side of C++
C++ is hard to write
cin has a type conversion to void*
So you can do while (cin) {...
Why void* and not bool?
Because then cin << 3 would not be a compile time error.
It would convert cin to bool,convert that to int and left-shift it by 3.
The Dark Side of C++ 14
The Dark Side of C++
C++ is hard to write
• Can’t throwexceptions in destructors,shouldn’t in constructors
• Initializers done in order of declaration of ﬁelds in class,not written order
• auto_ptr is useless
• Iterators don’t knowanything about the container,can’t detect errors
• For a vector,at() does bounds checking,but operator[] doesn’t
• Can’t call virtual member functions fromconstructor or destructor
The Dark Side of C++ 15
The Dark Side of C++
Throwing exceptions fromcon/destructors
• delete[] would leak memory if object 2 of 10 threwan exception
• Exceptions in constructor don’t unwind the constructor itself
• Does not even clean up local variables!
• Must do own cleanup
• OTOH:no other way to return failure,constructors are void
The Dark Side of C++ 16
The Dark Side of C++
Initializer Order
template<typename T> class Array {
private:
T* data;
size_t allocated,used;
public:
Array(int n):allocated(n),used(0),data(new T[allocated]) {}
};
Initialization order is declared in the class itself,not in the constructor.
data is allocated with the wrong size here.
The Dark Side of C++ 17
The Dark Side of C++
auto
ptr sucks
• Supposed to provide ”poor man’s garbage collection”
• If you copy it,only the copy retains ownership
• The original silently breaks
– no explicit assignments
– no by-value passing into functions
– breaks when put into STL containers
• The next version of the standard has better alternatives
The Dark Side of C++ 18
The Dark Side of C++
Iterators and their Containers
• Iterators are like dumb pointers
• Don’t knowanything about the container
• Silent breakage if you do a.remove(b.begin())
• Iterator to removed element
• Iterator to stale element (resized vector,or balanced tree after rebalance)
• Iterator into destructed container
The Dark Side of C++ 19
The Dark Side of C++
Bounds Checking
• For a vector,at() does bounds checking
• operator[] can,but does not have to
• The one fromgcc doesn’t
The Dark Side of C++ 20
The Dark Side of C++
Virtual functions in con/destructor
• In the constructor,the vtable is not properly initialized
• Usually,function pointers in vtable still point to virtual member of base
class
•...which can be pure virtual
• In the destructor of the base class,vtable points to base class
The Dark Side of C++ 21
The Dark Side of C++
C++ is hard to read
Type a = b;
a.value = 23;
Looks like Type is some kind of struct or class and b is left alone.
But what if:
typedef OtherType& Type;
Need to look at the types,too.
The Dark Side of C++ 22
The Dark Side of C++
C++ is hard to read
baz = foo->bar(3);
What does this code do?Looks easy enough,right?
The Dark Side of C++ 23
The Dark Side of C++
C++ is hard to read
baz = foo->bar(3);
baz could be an int.
foo could be a pointer to some struct.
bar could be a function pointer.
The Dark Side of C++ 24
The Dark Side of C++
C++ is hard to read
baz = foo->bar(3);
baz could be a reference to int (suddenly we overwrite something
elsewhere).
foo could be a class with its own operator-> (cascading smart pointers!)
bar could be a member function
baz could even be a reference to a typeof(foo) and alias foo.
The Dark Side of C++ 25
The Dark Side of C++
C++ is hard to read
baz = foo->bar(3);
Which baz is it?::baz or whatever::baz?
Can’t say fromthis line,have to look for
using namespace whatever;
What if the code is using more than one namespace?
Those declarations could be in some included header ﬁle.
The Dark Side of C++ 26
The Dark Side of C++
C++ is hard to read
baz = foo->bar(3);
There could be templates involved.
Maybe more than one template?
Maybe there are specializations somewhere that change the semantics?
(That is particularly bad when you use STL primitives and part of their
operation gets overwritten by some specialization somewhere;think about
sort which depends on operator<)
The Dark Side of C++ 27
The Dark Side of C++
C++ is hard to read
baz = foo->bar(3);
If foo->references some class,thenbarcouldbe a virtual function.Which
one is actually called?
If we have inheritance,all functions of the same name (even with different
signatures) are hidden by a function of that name in the derived class.
The Dark Side of C++ 28
The Dark Side of C++
C++ is hard to read
baz = foo->bar(3);
There could be overloaded versions of bar.We would have to check which
ones accept an int as argument.
There could be overloaded versions of bar with default arguments.
There could be ones that don’t accept int,but where a type conversion to
int exists (enum,bool,custom,...).
The Dark Side of C++ 29
The Dark Side of C++
C++ is hard to read
baz = foo->bar(3);
There could be implicit type conversions.Maybe foo->bar(3) returns a
fnord.Now we have to check if and how the type is getting converted to the
type of baz.
The assignment operator could be overloaded.-> could be overloaded.
() could be overloaded.These implementations could use other overloaded
operators that we would have to track down.
Depending on howwell the types match,maybe a temp object is generated.
Then we would have to look at the constructors and destructors,too.
The Dark Side of C++ 30
The Dark Side of C++
C++ is hard to read
baz = foo->bar(3);
Obviously,there could be preprocessor tricks.
Those are in C,too,and I like C,so I’mnot bashing themhere.
I do agree that they need some bashing.
The Dark Side of C++ 31
The Dark Side of C++
C++ makes auditing painful
A typical problemfor a source code auditor is:
• I just found this buffer overﬂow
• Howdo I trigger this?
This sucks even for C,but for C++ it depends on run-time state like the
vtables.A typical C++ application takes more than twice as long to audit as a
typical C application.
The Dark Side of C++ 32
The Dark Side of C++
C++ makes auditing painful
References make auditing much harder than it has to be.
When looking for integer overﬂows,you look for allocations,then you go
up looking for checks and places where the involved integers are written.
With C++,you don’t see the writes,because it says
some_func(whatever,the_int,SOME_FLAG);
andit canstill writethe_intif it’s a reference.InC,it wouldbe&the_int,
which is easily recognizable.
The Dark Side of C++ 33
The Dark Side of C++
C++ is too hard
C++ is like a C compiler that leaves the error messages to the assembler.
When you feed it syntactically bad code,it will generate syntactically bad
assembler code.
Almost nobody actually understands the error messages.
You get an error message?You start fudging the code until it compiles.
The Dark Side of C++ 34
The Dark Side of C++
C++ is too powerful
• Boost.Lambda:for_each(a.begin(),a.end(),std::cout << _1 << ’ ’);
• C++ Expression Templates
• Vector a,b,v;v = a/vectorProduct/b;
• Most people can’t handle all that ﬂexibility
– Code leaks resources when someone throws an exception
– Have to provide assignment operator,but fail if someone does a=a;
– Get hurt by stumbling blocks like auto_ptr
The Dark Side of C++ 35
The Dark Side of C++
C++ has some horrible warts
• assert(s[s.size()] == 0);works if s is a const std::string,but
is undeﬁned if it is not const.
• To overload ++a,you declare an operator++(yourtype&).To overload
a++,you declare an operator++(yourtype&,int dummy).
• Using custom allocators for STL containers precludes interoperating with
non-custom-allocator containers.
• operator[] adds a member to a map if it does not already exist.
• For templates,you have to substitute ”> >” for ”>>”
The Dark Side of C++ 36
The Dark Side of C++
Other nitpicks
• When disassembling,you can detect C++ code by the tons of do-nothing
wrappers
• Linkers remove unreferenced code
...but virtual function tables do reference the virtual functions.
So the linker includes all overwritten virtual functions frombase classes.
• Can’t tell what exceptions a library can throw
The Dark Side of C++ 37
The Dark Side of C++
NewBug Classes
• exception safety (resource leaks,deadlocks)
• delete vs delete[] (code execution)
• integer overﬂowin operator new[] (code execution,ﬁxed in MSVC)
• local static initialization not thread-safe
• many horrible warts
– expired iterators (code execution)
– pointer arithmetic with base classes (memory corruption)
The Dark Side of C++ 38
The Dark Side of C++
Exception Safety
char* read_first_n_bytes_from_file(const char* file,size_t n) {
int handle=open(file,O_RDONLY);
pthread_mutex_lock(&global_mutex);
char* buf=new char[n];
readfile(handle,buf,n);
pthread_mutex_unlock(&global_mutex);
close(handle);
return buf;
}
If new[] throws an exception,this leaks a ﬁle handle and deadlocks the
next caller.
The Dark Side of C++ 39
The Dark Side of C++
delete vs delete[]
void foo(int* x) {
delete[] x;
}
This will just call operator delete,which calls free().
The Dark Side of C++ 40
The Dark Side of C++
delete vs delete[]
void bar(class foo* x) {
delete[] x;
}
This also calls the destructors.
Howdoes it knowhowmany destructors to call?
The Dark Side of C++ 41
The Dark Side of C++
delete vs delete[]
void bar(class foo* x) { testq %rdi,%rdi
delete[] x;je.L6
} movq -8(%rdi),%rax
leaq (%rdi,%rax,4),%rbx
int n=((int*)x)[-1];cmpq %rbx,%rdi
class foo* y=x[n-1];je.L4
while (y!=x) {.L7:
y->~foo();subq $4,%rbx
--y;movq %rbx,%rdi
} call _ZN3fooD1Ev
delete x;cmpq %rbx,%rbp
jne.L7
.L4:
addq $8,%rsp
leaq -8(%rbp),%rdi
popq %rbx
popq %rbp
jmp _ZdaPv
.L6:
The Dark Side of C++ 42
The Dark Side of C++
delete vs delete[]
If you call delete when you should have called delete[],the pointer will
be off by sizeof(int),leading to heap corruption and possibly code execution.
If you call delete[] when you should have called delete,some random
destructors will be called on garbage data,probably leading to code execution.
The Dark Side of C++ 43
The Dark Side of C++
Integer overﬂowin operator new[]
wchar_t mystrdup(const char* x,size_t n) {
wchar_t* y=new wchar_t[n];
for (size_t i=0;i<n;++i)
y[i]=x[i];
return y;
}
What if n is 0x80000000?The compiler multiplies by sizeof(wchar_t)
and passes the result to operator new[],which basically calls malloc().
Straight integer overﬂowwith potential code execution.
The Dark Side of C++ 44
The Dark Side of C++
Integer overﬂowin operator new[]
MSVC 2005 adds code to check for int overﬂows (my fault,sorry).
The code still calls new[],but then passes -1,i.e.0xffffffff.Normally,
new[] calls malloc,which then fails.But what if you have overloaded new[]
so that it adds a small header?
The Dark Side of C++ 45
The Dark Side of C++
Local static initialization not thread-safe
int bar() { cmpb $0,_ZGVZ3barvE3bla
static struct foo bla;je.L5
return bla.member;movl _ZZ3barvE3bla,%eax
} addl $12,%esp
ret
.L5:
[call constructor]
movb $1,_ZGVZ3barvE3bla
[handle exceptions]
movl _ZZ3barvE3bla,%eax
ret
gcc 4 calls a guard function in libstdc++ that actually acquires a (global,
static) mutex.
The Dark Side of C++ 46
The Dark Side of C++
Pointer arithmetic with base classes
struct bar { int member;};
struct foo:public bar { int member2;};
void frobnicate(struct bar* x) {
x[0] -= x[1];//x[1] adds sizeof(bar) here,not sizeof(foo)
}
extern struct foo* array;
int ohnoooo() {
frobnicate(array);
}
The Dark Side of C++ 47
The Dark Side of C++
Gratuitous Bjarne Quote at the end
Whole program analysis (WPA) can be used to eliminate unused virtual
function tables and RTTI data.Such analysis is particularly suitable for relatively
small programs that do not use dynamic linking.
No shit,Sherlock.
It will be ready right after Duke NukemForever runs on the Hurd.
PS:Thanks to helpers and contributors,in particular Stefan Reuther.
The Dark Side of C++ 48